Introduction
ANA Business Class Chicago to Tokyo
United Club – Tokyo Narita
Thai Airways Business Class Tokyo to Bangkok
One Night in Bangkok
Thai Airways Business Class Bangkok to Bali
D’Wina Villa Kuta and Exploring Bali (Part 1)
Exploring Bali (Part 2)
Exploring Bali (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Bangkok to Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge and Addis Ababa to Seychelles
Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Exploring the Seychelles (Part 1)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 2)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Seychelles to Addis Ababa and Back to the US
After an incredible 2 weeks – starting with an excellent flight on ANA from Chicago to Tokyo, connecting to a Thai Airways flight between Tokyo and Bangkok, a quick overnight in Bangkok, one more flight to get to Bali, a wonderful 6 days in Bali, a unique but enjoyable Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa, with a continuing flight to the Seychelles, and 5 amazing days in the Seychelles – we finally began the journey home.
On our last day on Mahe, we visited a few beaches, saw a stingray and eel, stopped by a rum distillery and eventually drove back to the Mahe airport. We arrived about 2 ½ hours before our flight, and were the first customers in the Business Class line. Check in was done by contracted Air Seychelles agents (it wouldn’t make sense for Ethiopian Airlines to have dedicated employees living in the Seychelles for a single flight 5 days a week). Check in was relatively painless, and within 5 minutes, we had our boarding passes and a lounge pass to the Air Seychelles premium lounge, “Le Salon Vallée De Mai.” The lounge was very quiet and spacious – we were the only ones there when we arrived, although a few other passengers entered later.
The lounge had a mediocre spread of food – some small finger sandwiches and other snacks, a handful of self-serve beverages (including Takamaka Bay rum, the distillery we visited earlier in the day and had dinner at the night before). The lounge did offer decently fast free wifi, which was nice. The lounge also had nice views of the tarmac, so we saw our Ethiopian Airlines plane arrive and deplane. I took a screenshot on my phone, which was fun to see the blue dot (our current location) in the middle of the ocean.
A little over an hour before departure, we headed back downstairs to the main gate area. Boarding was decently organized (compared to the laughable fiasco of boarding our flight from Addis Ababa to the Seychelles earlier in the week).
We were welcomed on board the 3 hour flight back to Addis Ababa. Service was average…not great, but not horrible either. The flight was on a 737-800, just as the outbound flight was. Ethiopian’s 737s are a bit dated, and could use a refurb. The seats had manual legrests, which didn’t always stay in place. We were served the same adorable airplane shaped crackers and kolo as we did on the Addis to Seychelles flight:
There was no meal service on the flight, but we had eaten some snacks in the lounge in Mahe, and knew that the next flight would have dinner on it. The flight was overall smooth and on-time. We arrived back into Addis around 7:30 pm, and headed to the lounge to relax for a bit before our long flight back to the US. When we reached the lounge, it was fairly dead, but it began to fill up quickly.
There is a huge bank of international flights leaving from Addis Ababa around 10:00 pm (Washington, DC, Toronto, Milan, Rome, Paris, Dubai, etc). By about 8:30, there was hardly a seat to be found. People were wandering around looking for a place to sit – fortunately we had staked out a couple seats when we arrived. As the lounge filled up, however, the WiFi slowed to a crawl and eventually became unusable. My computer wouldn’t even load a single web page, and Mrs. Guru’s Kindle repeatedly timed out when trying to buy a book. The lounge staff periodically walked through the lounge to inform folks as each of the flights were boarding, so as people began leaving for the flights that left slightly before ours, the WiFi began to show signs of life again. Mrs. Guru was finally able to purchase and download a book, which was much needed for our long journey home.
We left the lounge at about 9:10 pm and headed through the secondary security check, which everyone must pass through in order to enter the actual gate areas. Fortunately, there were no accusations of line-skipping like our last transit of Addis. We made our way to Gate 7, where boarding had just begun for flight ET500 back to Washington, DC.
On board, we made our way to our seats, 2A and 2B. Ethiopian’s 777s have an almost lie-flat design. Purely lie-flat seats are much more comfortable, but the 777s are relatively new and clean in Business Class.
Due to the higher elevation of Addis Ababa (it’s over 7,700 feet above sea level), the plane is not able to take off with enough fuel to make the flight nonstop. Flying eastbound, taking off from Washington, the flight is operated nonstop, but westbound, the plane makes a stop to refuel in Rome, Italy.
We settled into our seats for a long trip home – from Addis to Rome would be a little under 6 hours, and Rome to Washington, DC would be about 10 hours. The refueling in Rome would take about an hour, so the total trip back to the US would be almost 17 hours.
Shortly after takeoff, dinner was served. The crew was pleasant, but not overly friendly. After dinner, we reclined and fell asleep. Unfortunately, due to the shorter duration of the Addis to Rome segment, we were both sound asleep when we were descending into Rome around 3:00 am. We had to return our seats upright, and continued to doze. As soon as the wheels touched the ground, it was back to laying down. Perhaps it was the fact that I was groggy and half asleep, but taxiing to the refueling area seemed to take forever (it was at least 15-20 minutes). I remember poking my head up at one point and seeing another Ethiopian 777 parked next to us, also refueling, which was flying from Addis on to Toronto. Eventually, around 4:45 am local time, we were fueled up and ready to go. Seats had to be put back up again for take off. As soon as we took off, however, it was back to sleep.
I slept relatively well for another 4 hours or so. I woke up as we were crossing over Ireland, with about 6 hours left in the flight. Mrs. Guru woke up around the same time, and we decided to watch a movie. Not long after the movie, breakfast was served, with the sunrise chasing us over the Atlantic:
Finally, we crossed into US airspace. Even though most land looks pretty similar from 40,000 ft, it was comforting to know that we’d soon be back home after the trip of a lifetime. The last 90 minutes of the flight did seem to take an extraordinary amount of time, but soon enough, we touched down in DC a few minutes after 8:30 am local time.
When we pulled up to the gate, Business Class passengers were allowed to deplane first, and we were directed onto one of the infamous Dulles “mobile lounges” (aka moonbuggy).
The moonbuggy would be taking us to the international arrivals building connected to the Main Terminal. I had never been through this process before, but have frequently ridden the moonbuggies between terminals before. Typically the moonbuggies have boarding doors at both ends, so as we boarded, we headed all the way to the back, expecting to be one of the first to disembark. Unfortunately, I realized too late that this moonbuggy was different than most moonbuggies. It only had doors at one end, so by walking all the way in, we would be one of the last to disembark. Oh well, such is life!
Clearing immigration was far from speedy, but only took about 20-25 minutes, so it wasn’t too painful. We hadn’t seen our suitcases in almost 24 hours, but sure enough, they were waiting for us in a separate “Priority” section next to the regular luggage carousels. We cleared customs quickly and headed to the United transit desk to re-check out suitcases on to Greensboro. A few months before the trip, United discontinued the mid-day nonstop flight from DC to Greensboro, so the only flights were at 8 am, 5 pm, and 10 pm. With an arrival at 8:30 am, we would already miss the 8 am flight, so the quickest way back to Greensboro would actually be with a quick jaunt north to Philadelphia, and then connecting down to Greensboro. We checked our bags for the IAD-PHL and PHL-GSO flights, and made our way to the Lufthansa lounge to freshen up.
The Lufthansa lounge at Dulles is one of the better lounges in the US, and traveling in Business Class allowed us access. The lounge had a very nice breakfast spread with meats, cheeses, and breads. Also available were several packages of noodles, as the lounge is used by passengers departing to Tokyo around 11 am. The lounge also has 2 private showers, which are very nice and modern. We headed downstairs for a shower, although they were both occupied, so our name was added to the waiting list. Within about 15 minutes, one shower opened up for the Mrs. Guru, and about 10 minutes later, the other shower opened up for me.
After the long overnight flight from Addis, the shower felt remarkable. Feeling much more awake and refreshed, I checked in with a few family members and friends to let them know we had made it back into the country safely.
After munching on a variety of snacks, we made our way to our connecting flight up to Philly on United. That flight was on time, and relatively uneventful. Upon arrival into Philly, our flight to Greensboro would be leaving from the F gates, so we had to take a shuttle bus to Terminal F. On the 2nd floor above the central atrium of Terminal F was a relatively small US Airways Club, where we waited during our layover. The lounge was nothing special, but quiet and comfortable with typical packaged snacks…Milano cookies, shortbread cookies, chips and salsa, etc. After catching up on emails, we headed down to Gate F9, for our final leg of the journey on US Airways. About an hour and a half later, we touched down in Greensboro after traveling 28,378 miles:
Somehow, I wasn’t surprised when we watched the luggage belt go around….and around….and around….and around…with our luggage no where in sight. We had seen it just a few hours ago in DC, it had made it literally around the world, transited through Ethiopia twice, to remote islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean….but it couldn’t make it from DC to Philly and down to Greensboro. Alas, we had to file a missing baggage claim before leaving. Luckily, the next day, a courier called and delivered our suitcases to our house.
It was without a doubt, the trip of a lifetime. It was wonderful to try out several new airlines – ANA, Thai, and Ethiopian Airlines – especially in Business Class, the flights themselves are part of the experience.